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Getting food to our tables eats up 10 percent
of the total U.S. energy budget |
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| Food uses 50 percent of U.S. land |
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The population swallows 80
percent of freshwater consumed in the United States. |
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40 percent of food in the
United States today goes uneaten.4
That is more than 20 pounds of food per person
every month |
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Americans are throwing out the equivalent
of $165 billion each year |
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almost all of that uneaten
food ends up rotting in landfills where organic matter accounts for 16 percent of U.S.
methane emissions |
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| one in six Americans lack a secure supply of food to their tables. |
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The average American consumer wastes 10 times as much food as someone in
Southeast Asia, up 50 percent from Americans in the 1970s. |
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In just five years, avoidable
household food waste in the United Kingdom has been
reduced 18 percent |
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A waste reduction organization in the
United Kingdom has estimated this type of clarification
could prevent about 20 percent of wasted food in
households. |
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One
key opportunity for this is education alongside municipal
composting programs. |
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Stop and Shop was able to
save an estimated $100 million annually after an analysis
of freshness, shrink, and customer satisfaction in their
perishables department. |
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Our nation’s agricultural production accounts for 80 percent
of consumptive water uses and more than half of all land
use |
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It releases hundreds of millions of pounds of pesticides
into the environment each year, is the leading cause of water
quality impairment in the nation’s rivers and streams, and
is the largest emitter of nitrous oxide and methane, two
powerful greenhouse gases. |
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Another cause of unharvested produce is food safety
scares. For example, in 2008 a warning was issued by the
Food and Drug Administration of possible salmonella
contamination in tomatoes. |
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Labor shortages are another reason that produce is
sometimes left in the field. |
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All told, approximately 7 percent of planted fields in the
United States are typically not harvested each year. |
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Association estimated labor shortages for harvest and
packing would cost the state US$140 million in crop losses—
about 25 percent of total production value for those crops |
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6-year averages show that acreage left unharvested is about 2
percent for potatoes, 8 percent for sweet corn, and 15 percent
for wheat.24 At least 97,000 acres (6 percent) of fruit and
vegetable row crops were not harvested |
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5 According to an
estimate by Feeding America, more than 6 billion pounds of
fresh produce go unharvested or unsold each year |
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Culling is the removal of
products based on quality or appearance criteria, including
specifications for size, color, weight, blemish level, and Brix
(a measure of sugar content) |
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a packer of citrus, stone
fruit, and grapes estimated that 20 to 50 percent of the
produce he handles is unmarketable but perfectly edible. |
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Processing facilities generate food losses mostly through
trimming, when both edible portions (skin, fat, peels, end
pieces) and inedible portions (bones, pits) are removed from
food |
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A study by a U.K.-based waste-reduction and recycling
organization estimates that food manufacturers lose about
16 percent of their raw materials during manufacturing,
amounting to 23 percent of total food losses produced
by manufacturing, distribution, retail operations, and
households. |
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A separate study by the European Commission
estimates that 39 percent of total food loss, excluding loss
at the farm level, was generated at the manufacturing stage |
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About 10 percent of the
U.S. energy budget goes to
bringing food to our tables. |
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In-store food losses in the United States totaled an estimated
43 billion pounds in 2008, equivalent to 10 percent of the
total food supply at the retail level |
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The USDA estimates that supermarkets
lose $15 billion annually in unsold fruits and vegetables
alone |
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One industry consultant
estimates that up to one
in seven truckloads of
perishables delivered to
supermarkets is thrown away. |
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Pack sizes that are too large. Produce arrives in preset
quantities according to case size. This limits the flexibility
for produce buyers to purchase exactly the amount needed.
For example, if a grocer wants 50 grapefruit but they come in
cases of 80, the store is then stuck with 30 extras. |
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Most stores, in
fact, pull items 2 to 3 days before the sell-by date |
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). In addition, many of the
19,000 or so new food products placed on grocery store
shelves each year |
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